As I mentioned in [intlink id=”13857″ type=”post”]my previous post[/intlink], Mr. popped the question while we were in Spain. We split our 10 days there between Madrid, Sevilla, and Barcelona. Now, I’m not saying that I thought he was going to propose, and I’m certainly not saying that I didn’t think he was going to propose, but I think it’s better to tell this story if I go back and think about everything that must have been going on in his head while we were there. So, just know that I wasn’t evilly plotting and trying to throw wrenches in his plan…they did that all by themselves.

The first concern of the trip: ring transport. I guess he was worried about someone stealing it from his checked luggage but he also didn’t want to take a chance and have me see it while going through security (man, that would have been a romantic place to propose) and he and my uncle even went so far as to research how difficult it would be to overnight my ring to the friend we were staying with in Madrid. In the end, he just decided to keep it in his carryon and make sure I just wasn’t looking at his x-ray. All the while, I was oblivious. Just excited to go to Spain!

I found out later that all along his plan was to propose in the gardens of the Alcazar as soon as we got to Sevilla (my absolute favorite place in the whole world). This is where we hit wrench #1. We arrived in Sevilla on a Monday and the Alcazar is closed on Mondays. Again, I didn’t mind because I was oblivious, but apparently Mr. was pretty frustrated and really just wanted to ask so he could stop worrying about losing the ring. So, Tuesday morning comes along and we’re ready to hit the gardens, only there’s a line at least 100 yards long and there is NO way I was going to stand in that line. So although he resisted, we decided to go to a couple other places I wanted to take him and then we’d return to the gardens later. The whole time we were walking around, he kept asking questions like, “So are the royal gardens prettier than this?” “When are we going to go to the gardens?” or “are you ready to go to the gardens now?” I was really enjoying our morning stroll and liked that we were taking our time seeing the sights, sitting down under pretty trees, sipping granizadas, people watching, and I wasn’t in any hurry to stand in line with a bunch of other tourists to visit the gardens during peak hours. So, was it weird that he kept asking all these questions when it seemed perfectly fine to me that we were taking our time? Sorta…but what seemed even more weird is how Mr. refused to take off his jacket and it was about 83 degrees.

FINALLY after 5 hours of “sweaty nervousness” (so he says) we made it to the Alcazar. Then the questions began again: (when we hadn’t reached the garden part of the Alcazar yet) “How do we get to the garden part?” (then when we had gotten to the garden) “So, where’s you’re favorite spot? (Thinking back…ok, thanks dr. duh.) Of course, I continued my leisurely pace while he (as he told me afterwards) scoped out the gardens trying to find where he would ask. Only, when he found a spot, it took us a while to actually get there. Still sweaty, still nervous.

Views from the balcony:

{ all photos by me }

The spot he chose could not have been more perfect: a raised walkway overlooking the entire gardens, beautiful flowers on one side, pond full of ducklings on the other. Of course the final wrench (only moments before he asked) was that I went in for what became the most awkward hug EVER. It was like a half-hug where he raised his arm in order for me to not feel the box in his pocket. Luckily, I didn’t feel it and just a minute later he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him ☺

My ring! { photo by me }

So, between my love of flamenco and the special place in which Mr. proposed, we’d certainly love to incorporate some sort of Spanish garden or secret garden style into our wedding. It’s been tricky though since we don’t want to do anything literal, ya know? So that means no fans, no flamenco dresses, and definitely nothing Mexican like sombreros or (although they’re pretty) paper cutouts.

Can you think of anything that would give us that Secret Spanish Garden style? The only thing I can think of using would be to use some sort of tile pattern. What would be some ways to incorporate it into our venue?